E-Learning and InstructionalDesign

After reading the chapter on the e-learning I came across a couple of passages that really hit with me. One of the passages was from the Technics vs. Trucks section it said "The logical assumption is that learning is "delivered" to learners (the method) and that the delivery vehicle itself (the medium) is not particularly important." I do not agree with this statement at all, and in the book it discussed how the medium or the vehicle in which we teach the method is just as important and the road that leads us to the knowledge of the method. So in other words Clarks doesn't agree with the statement either. I think in order for children to learn I have to be familiar with their learning habits. In my classroom some students learn with just the verbal explanation and then I have students who need me to model or to practice themselves before they understand the concept. It is also the same way with  materials, for a student to learn about the life cycle of an ant a book maybe helpful, for others they may need a video and to go even more into it some might need an interactive computer game. I think that it is important to know that the delivery is just as important as the information when teaching.
The other passage that I read that I liked was "Without question, incidental learning on the Internet is a rich area for systematic exploration and research by university faculty, corporate R&D groups and graduate students", from the Analysis of Learning Outcomes section. I think that this statement should be expanded to anyone. I think that the Internet can help with so much learning! The Internet is a tool that is used, by most people, everyday, and it is a constant source of information. It is nice to be able to explore things that I didn't know were out there and available, by taking this class. By taking this class as a graduate student, I have many tools that I have explored on the Internet and are aware of now, that I can use in my classroom now, even with preschoolers and especially some day when I get my own public school classroom. The information that I find when completing my projects are so helpful, that I even tell other people about. So I defiantly think that the Internet is great for exploration and research for the groups listed in the statement and also many others.

Free Website Reviews

    The first site that I looked at was FotoFlexer, this was a sight were you could up load photos and add things to them or change them. Some of the features that you could use when playing with this tool was change the effect, decorate it, add animations, beautify it, distort it, geek it up and add layers. There is a ton of different options underneath these sections for you to try out and pick. I played around with adding stickers to a picture of a sheep, giving it glasses, a hat and a scarf. I also changed the colors of a picture of a bridge and added some animated text and pictures to it. This is a tool that I think teacher's can use to teach their students how to add and change pictures, it would be really great for a photography class! I think this would be a fun tool to use when it came to creating projects. I think this would have been a really fun thing to have when doing my senior portfolio, I could have done more with the pictures I used. On the other hand if a teacher was making a PowerPoint or wanted to add some unique pictures to a classroom website this would be a fun tool to use. This tool is a highly related to the Instagram that many people use on their cell phones or Facebook, so that is one reason it would be a great tool, because so many people are related to it.
    The other tool that I observed was the Zoho account, which I found very confusing. I felt that this site was gear more toward people that run their own business or higher end people from a corporation or business. There were areas where I could add leads, contacts, accounts and many other items. I looked into these things but in order to use them, you have to have information like that to add to them, so I didn't add anything. It seems like a helpful tool and I would recommend it to people who are in the business field, but unless a teacher is involved with some financial part of the school, I would think this site would be unnecessary. However, this tool would be great for high school teachers who teach business classes or even some type of math class. For a preschool teacher, I see no reason to use this unless it was for a personal use.

Getting an Instructional Design Position Reading

    In the chapter Getting an Instructional Design Position: Lessons from a Personal History, I found some lessons that I found interesting and that I have done in small amounts but need to focus on more. One of the lessons that the author talked about was to become more active in professional organizations. I have been involved in some organizations but not to the extent that he talks about. I have done my fair share of volunteering, but there is instances where it has only been a couple of times and then I don't do it anymore. I think this is something that I need to do more often to get more experiences and to help in future careers. There are things that I volunteer to do for my work, when they come about, but there are things that I can be doing in my community and in surrounding communities to help the schools, which in turn might help me to get a job in a public school one day!
    Another lesson that I saw in this chapter that connected with me was about revising a job that doesn't fit or apply for jobs that interested me, even if you don't have the exact qualifications. This does apply for me because when I first got my job I was a preschool home base teacher, which meant I had to go to children's homes and work with the parents and young children ages 2-3. I got my degree in elementary education, with an early childhood minor, so it did apply to my job, but it wasn't something I was qualified for. Getting the job was a great start and foot in the door to where I am now, a preschool center based teacher for preschoolers, ages 3-5. I would like to have a teaching job in the elementary school, so what I need to do is to apply, apply, apply, to get myself out there and to participate in things so that I can get that job I desire!
    This chapter gave some really good tips, that you know about but often forget to do. I like the part also about how he says you will not get the first job or second cause a lot of people, me included, get discouraged if they do not recieve the jobs they applied for. This is a good chapter for people to read, because it puts things in perspective.

Snow Website

Here is a link to my website. I set up my website to have students and families use to connect what we are learning in the classroom to home. This website gives vocabulary words, fun facts and ideas of things to do at home!

HS Kids Explore

Chapter 18 Reflection

    One of the common themes that I have seen or have been hinted at is cross cultural integration. I think that it is important for business and education to take into consideration the vast variety of cultures that make up the United States as well as other countries. This is a concept that talks about integrating cultural values and language into the technology that is used in the businesses and schools. It helps people of various cultures feel more comfortable and to be able to do their job better and faster. It is also important to remember how it would be like if you were in a different country, and how much better you would feel if you had these resources when you were in a different country.
    Another aspect that I thought was a common item in these three articles was the interactive technology. The various types like the cultural programs and prototyping are things that help to make peoples work more easier. The cultural aspect of having the computer programs to help people from various cultures do their work is important. The other item that I mentioned was prototyping, this is a program that can give you a working model or rough draft of a final project of the model. This is a great program to help workers and students get things done faster and reach milestones quicker by seeing and knowing what the end project is going to be.
    Somethings that I think could be used in my work environment is to have more cross cultural items available. I know the Internet is a great resource for students and workers but I have never known programs to be available or where I can learn where these items are at. I know that in my preschool classroom we have some technology for children who speak Spanish. We have a preschool computer program that they are able to play and we also have leap frogs that have Spanish books, but that is it for technology, and I don't really know what is available otherwise. This also deals with the interactive technology, schools just don't have the money to buy multiple technology tools. This is one problem that is common, and needs to be addressed so that these options can be available more often.

Tree Concept Map

This is a concept map that I have create based on what a child would make when learning about trees. Trees is a unit that my preschool class has been studying so I thought I would use the things we have been learning to make the concept map. Many of these items are things that students in my class have brainstormed when talking about what animals live in trees, what are the parts of a tree and what can we get from trees. There are a few added items, as they have now learned them after reviewing the topics, so I added them to make the map more complete.

Ch. 21 Instructional Designers and P-12 Technology Integration

   I read the article about instructional design in the schools and during the reading it talked about how the technology that was used changed student and teacher behaviors. One thing that I read in this part of the article talked about how even though teachers are implementing this in their lessons and classroom it was having small or no impact on the students learning. The thought of this was surprising in some sense but also hit home, not so much for me but for things I have seen. Some of the reasons that the authors of this book thing that this occurred is because, students used computers for high-order use as well as low-level tasks. This caused a mixed approach which was thought to have impacted the students approaches.
   Another thing that they found was that teachers only used the technology because they had to, based on money given from educational technology grants. This means that they didn't put forth the effort towards it and only did it because they we expected to. Lack of teacher training is another issue that comes about. I think this especially falls for teachers that have been in the school system for years and are now getting trained on using items that they are not familiar with. This can cause the use of the technology to be ineffective. The last part that they mentioned in this part of the article, that can cause low impact on education is, that the assessments is used for low level learning. It doesn't work towards the high level learning activities, which in a lot of ways is something that you would want to work for. I would want my students to be challenged and taught higher level learning activities.
   These issues are something that I never really considered. However, I have seen some of these issues. I think that teachers with no background and that have no experience with technology can have an issue with not enough training, I have seen this happen, I have even had it happen with me in this class. I have not been familiar with some of this technology, but I am glad that I have had to do these activities, instead of just being trained on them. These issues are something that everyone should be aware of and think about when they are using technology in the classroom.